Bug bounties have become more popular, but that isn’t surprising given they have been around for more than a generation. The first bug bounty hunting program originated with computer science professor Don Knuth decades ago. It was for reporting errors in his classic book series the Art of Computer Programming, and in catching bugs in several of his landmark software applications. Since then, many vendors such as Google and Facebook have been running programs and there are others that handle submissions and payouts, set the rules for participation, and generally keep track of all the administration for the program.